Whicker: Big fight finds glitzy home in Macau

Nov. 21, 2013

Updated Nov. 22, 2013 10:15 p.m.

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This is a general night view of the casino strip in Macau. Gambling has been legal in Macau for more than 150 years, but has seen a rapid transformation over the past decade . CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

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The casino floor is seen through the doors of the Venetian Casino's Great Hall in Macau. The only place in China with legalized casino gambling, the city is booming. CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

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A view of Macau's skyline. Property prices there have increased dramatically, forcing many small and mid-sized businesses into bankruptcy and pushing some residents to share accommodation or move away completely. MARK WHICKER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The view back at the city of Macau from the Ruins of St. Paul's, a destroyed church. MARK WHICKER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Residential suburbs spill from the downtown high-rises in Macau. Situated just one hour from mainland China and Hong Kong, Macau is also known as "The Oriental Las Vegas." It received 14.1 million visitors for the first six months of this year. CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

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A man walks through the lobby of the Venetian Casino and Hotel in Macau. The casino is the site of Saturday's title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios. CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

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People ride mopeds through a busy intersection in the residential district in Macau. Macau seen a rapid transformation over the last decade from the small time gambling clubs, gangs and prostitution of the 1990s, to becoming the world's gambling mecca. CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

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Tour groups pose for photographs in front of the Ruins of St. Paul's in Macau. The stand-alone wall is all that remains from a Jesuit church ruined by fire in 1837. CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

This is a general night view of the casino strip in Macau. Gambling has been legal in Macau for more than 150 years, but has seen a rapid transformation over the past decade .CHRIS MCGRATH, GETTY IMAGES

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MACAU – By the thousands, they walk into the vast casino and right past the understated sign.

If you have a gambling problem, there are five agencies listed to help you deal with it, including something called The Resilience Centre.

The resilience industry is no match for the parting of fools and money that lies just off the peninsula of Macau.

If you’re wondering why there is suddenly world championship boxing in a former Portuguese colony that would have been the answer to a Final Jeopardy question 15 years ago, the reason is the hole that Macau has poked in the world’s pocket.

In 2012, Macau’s casinos brought in $38 billion. That was 13.5 percent more than they lured in 2011. The 2011 figure was 42 percent higher than in 2010.

In December of last year, Macau’s till was more than half of Las Vegas’ intake for the whole year.

Boxing follows such money, and that is why Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios will be fighting at the Cotai Arena, inside the Venetian Macau, on Sunday at noon (Saturday night in California).

It’s useless to explain the scope of all this. The Venetian has more than 300 shops, mostly of Hermes and Cartier stature, along with a par-3 golf course, a theater and arena, 800 gaming tables, 3,400 slot machines, 2,905 rooms, gondola rides, a 9,000-square foot children’s playground, a permanent Cirque de Soleil production and its own ferry service to Hong Kong …

And 19 sit-down restaurants, not including a third-floor food court. Just outside that, one can dine underneath the sky. Well, at least under a ceiling made to simulate the sky.

Pacquiao has not been seen in any of these lairs, but then he has his own hair salon and butler within his suite.

The Venetian is surrounded by other protectorate casinos and a couple dozen construction cranes, auguring more. But that cluster is largely on the island of Taipa.

The rest of Macau is at the tip of a peninsula, connected to Taipa by three bridges and hardly anything else. There are a few casinos on that peninsula, too, but the general feel is like you attached the world’s biggest, brightest merry-go-round on top of your ranch house.

The real Macau is a churning, coughing, thickly staffed place with 567,000 residents.

Like Hong Kong, it is designated a Special Administrative Region under the Chinese government, the beneficiary of the Chinese military but with separate governments and decision-making power.

Macau itself is unofficially the most densely populated place in the world. In the alleys between the main streets there is endless commerce, although that quaint little shop with the jewelry boxes and the chess set is likely stuck between a McDonald’s and a Columbia outerwear company.

In one such shop, a young woman was asked about the upcoming fight. “Yes,” she smiled. “Freddie Roach.” She pumped her fists, recognizing that the first round had already happened, between trainers.

There are slivers of peace to be found. Macau was a Portuguese colony for centuries. Its streets are still named Avenidas, much like San Clemente, and its cuisine is as much Portuguese and North African as Chinese.

In Senado Square, the heartbeat of downtown, part of the pavement is cast in patterns of brown and white tile, and there was a half-finished Christmas tree standing there Thursday.

The square is near the Ruins of St. Paul’s, which is basically a façade, like Rock Ridge in “Blazing Saddles.” The huge false front represents a Jesuit church that was mostly destroyed by a fire in 1837. It stands at the top of steep stairs, and from the top you view the tumult below. It is the postcard of Macau.

By the waterfront, where an impressive but pointless Macau Tower stands, there are ornate Portuguese houses and the incongruous thwack of tennis balls, from a club founded in colonial times.

Around the corner is the A-Ma Temple, near the original point of entry to Macau, dedicated to the Taoist goddess of seafaring. Worshippers with incense sticks bowed to various shrines.

On the walk back, someone noticed a renovation project, except the scaffolding was bamboo instead of steel.

In the park above the Ruins of St. Paul’s, someone noticed that the workmen who clean off the rocks and maintain the gardens leave their brooms half-hidden in cubbyholes, to pick up the next day.

As difficult as it might be to break through the magnetic pull of The Venetian and actually venture outside, the Macau that lives apart from the monsters can be addictive, too.

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